Experts predict that Asian phrases will become the new Aussie slang in the future

THIS is something all Aussies should be as mad as a cut snake about.

Experts say as Australia becomes more global, successful and cosmopolitan, the country is losing its unique expressions, creating fewer new ones and borrowing more from overseas.

Now, linguistics is a topic most of us would consider as dry as a dead dingo’s donger, but our slang is intrinsically tied to our Australian identity (ie. it’s what makes us true blue).

As the BBC reports, linguist Tony Thorne from London’s Kings College says Aussie lingo is going the way of the Tasmanian tiger.

Hello possums … One of the greatest exporters of Australia humour and language, Dame Edna.Source: Supplied

“The kind of Australian culture, very macho, very classless, that kind of ocker culture based around drinking, is just out of date,” he told the BBC.

Australian slang had its heyday in the 1960s and 70s — where the international Bush Telegraph made our turns of phrase famous the world over — but much of that innovation has dried up.

Mr Thorne said there were only three new Australian slang terms in the latest edition of his slang dictionary — the fewest ever.

“Australia has become a powerhouse in the financial and service sectors. Australians now when they go abroad, they’re not barmen and backpackers. They’re working in the corporate sector,” he told the BBC.

The Guardian has pointed to Chris Lilley as the sole exporter of new Australianisms — with his Tongan schoolboy character Jonah a proponent of “ranga”, meaning redheads, and his private schoolgirl character Ja’mie pioneering “quiche”, meaning hot or attractive.

CLP cabinet minister John Elferink charged taxpayers more than $45,000 for a ‘study trip’ to the United States over the Christmas holidays, including visits to Cape Canaveral Space Base and Universal Studios.